The doctor will see you now... but from 260 miles away
Patients’ anger as GP holds remote consultations from her £585,000 seaside home
A GP has been conducting online consultations for patients at her Sussex surgery from 260 miles away – in the comfort of her Cornish seaside home.
Patients were left furious at the revelation that Dr Justine Hall is working from her £585,000 house in Falmouth rather than seeing them face-to-face. She is one of three doctors listed as working at Rudgwick medical centre near Horsham, West Sussex. It has recently been experiencing ‘high demand’ for its services, according to a recorded message from Dr Hall on its phone system.
However, fewer than 32 per cent of appointments at Rudgwick in October were with a GP – and 26 per cent on the same day as they were requested, according to figures released last week.
Ninety-two per cent were held face-to-face.
The surgery’s website states that Dr Hall holds ‘remote working’ consultations on Wednesdays and Thursdays and has been ‘working locally’ to Guildford, Surrey – a 30minute drive away – since 2015.
However, she now lives much further away. One patient, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘I was staggered when I was told she had moved to Cornwall.’
The patient said the surgery had offered them only remote appointments, adding: ‘For some diagnoses you need to see someone and yet they think it’s OK to have the number two doctor in the practice living in Cornwall.
‘It’s just outrageous. It used to be a very highly thought-of practice and now it’s not.’
A spokesman for Rudgwick told the Telegraph: ‘We aim to provide the very best care for our patients. If any patients have concerns about any aspect of their care, we would encourage them to contact us directly so we can investigate their concerns through our complaints procedure. For a number of years our commissioners and NHS England have supported remote working in our area.’
The row comes as national figures last week revealed that one in five patients have waited more than two weeks to be seen by a doctor – an all-time high. Other statistics revealed that just one in eight GP appointments are carried out face-to-face at England’s worst-performing practices.
That is just a fraction of the national average of 71 per cent — the highest since before Covid.
A senior figure at the Royal College of GPs also admitted recently that doctors went ‘too far’ with remote appointments at the height of the pandemic.
Official figures show the proportion of patients seen in-person in general practice has bounced back to its highest level since March 2020 when the UK was plunged into its first lockdown.
Seven in 10 consultations in England were face-to-face in October.
The rate dropped as low as four in 10 during the early days of the pandemic as Britons were told to stay at home to limit the spread of the virus.
Despite 80 per cent of patients being seen in-person pre-Covid, top doctors have suggested the figure may never return to this level. Officials had told GPs, who earn an average of £110,000, to see more patients in-person to boost access, reduce the risk of missed diagnoses and tackle disparities across the country.
However, some surgery areas are continuing to deliver a much higher rate of virtual appointments than others.
Meanwhile, national figures show that just 44 per cent of appointments in October were with a GP – the lowest proportion since records began in 2018. The majority were with other practice staff, such as a nurses, health visitors or physiotherapists.
Dr Hall and the Rudgwick surgery were last night unavailable for further comment.
‘It’s just outrageous’